The invention relates generally to safety harnesses, and in particular to harnesses used for fall arrest. The current state of the art in fall arrest harnesses utilizes a primary fall arrest attachment point at the dorsal location. The dorsal location provides for optimal transfer of energy during the arrest of the falling person and is the required location for the primary fall arrest attachment point in several industry standards governing the typical user of a fall arrest harness.
A significant negative side effect of arresting a fall from the dorsal location is the difficulty of self-rescue. The inability to reach and manipulate a loaded dorsal attachment point necessitates rescue of the fallen worker by others. Any delay in rescue can lead to medical complications from the suspension from the dorsal location, which on some occasions has occurred in a manner of minutes depending on the worker and the design of the harness worn. The ability to transfer the suspension point from the dorsal location to a more advantageous location is therefore desirable. Previous designs have allowed for either automatic or manual transfer of the suspension point, but the transfer was not controllable. An automatic transfer can, depending on the deployment, result in arresting the fall in an undesirable location with potentially harmful energy transfer. A manual transfer, if uncontrolled, can result in a secondary fall and arrest with additional forces to the body. Consequently, a need exists for an improved fall arrest harness design that addresses the drawbacks of prior harnesses.